http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Maldives/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , Maldives en-us Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:25:58 UTC Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:25:58 UTC We've been meaning to wrap this up since we arrived home almost 1 month ago exactly. The Maldives were incredible. Each day we made sure that we filled with as much as we could. We loved to run to the gym in the morning sweating profusely on our way there pump some iron more sweat have brunch in the primary restaurant relax in our above water hammocks or on our ocean deck go diving or s http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Maldives/Male-Atoll/blog-312575.html RR Wednesday July 9 2008 Another startling wakeup call blared at 700AM for our 800AM departure to our island hotel. We slowly got ready and peered outside. Turquoise water and sandy beach outside our patio were just the beginning of unanticipated beauty everywhere around us. Leaving our cool room we instantly felt the pressure of the 80 degree 85 humidity climate. A welcome change from http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Maldives/Male-Atoll/blog-298658.html The heavens reflected our sadness this morning. The rain was pouring torrentially and apparently was set to stay like that for a week Good job our time there was spent under the sunny rays instead of rain clouds. We were very fortunate. The alarm woke us up and we had to shower in the cool rain before finishing our packing. A chap arrived to pick up our bags and drop us off at the breakfast http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Maldives/Lhaviyani-Atoll/blog-296042.html It was a sad dawning to this day our last full day in paradise Do we have to go back to real life Canrsquot we just stay here At least for another week Once again Gail headed off for her last snorkelling trip this time to an impressive wreck site about an hour away by boat. This ship grounded on a bank years before and has now become a fantastic dive and snorkelling site. Plenty of http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Maldives/Lhaviyani-Atoll/blog-296011.html Once again another early morning. Walked out onto the beach to see the moon still high in the sky and the clouds rolling in for a glorious dawning of a new day before heading back to bed until a more decent hour The morning brought rain hard tropical downpours which ruled out a mornings snorkelling and tanning. Instead we caught up on blogging and just hung around chatting. At lunch we hail http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Maldives/Lhaviyani-Atoll/blog-293108.html Exploration day Today we played Robinson Crusoe and explored our atoll from top to bottom and in all the nooks and crannies too. We figured we had better given that our time here was nearly over and so far hadnrsquot seen too much of the rest of place as wersquore quite content on our section where we arenrsquot disturbed by anyone else. Just a point to add this blog is being written ou http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Maldives/Lhaviyani-Atoll/blog-291289.html Today was more of the same sun eat swim snorkel eat again and this time with some added rain In the morning Gail was going to head out snorkelling on her own while I stayed back to lie in the sun but the weather was changing with big black ominous clouds coming towards us in the sky. The snorkelling trip was cancelled due to the weather in the morning and so we just lazed around until the http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Maldives/Lhaviyani-Atoll/blog-290366.html Another day in paradise dawns and today we decided against going for a 10am snorkel. We still felt like we were on the boat being tossed about which was a little disconcerting particularly since the nausea was still present in both of us. Needless to say we skipped breakfast and just had an apple before wandering outside to sit in the sun for a while. Today it was hot We were horrified to not http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Maldives/Lhaviyani-Atoll/blog-288882.html Turtle dive Last night before we headed to bed we asked our rep when she thought we would be heading out to turtle point to see the turtles and mantas. She thought today and so told us to meet at 10am at the panorama jetty. Dutifully we were there after a quick healthy breakfast of papaya and pineapple. We did grab a pasty as we left though but really you need one those fatty things to gi http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Maldives/Lhaviyani-Atoll/blog-288462.html The day started with a very nutritious breakfast to sustain us through our morningrsquos snorkelling trip organised by the resort which consisted of two pastries and some pineapple The resort puts on two snorkelling trips a day one at 10am and the other at 4pm but apparently the best viewings are in the morning when conditions are better. The morning trips are further away and tend to be http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Maldives/Lhaviyani-Atoll/blog-288444.html We awoke to a glorious sunny Sabbath day and had a very lazy start after some bible study. After lunch we decided to head out into the lagoon for some snorkeling this time heading further out to the reef as apparently itrsquos quite shallow there and the fish are supposedly very good. As we donned our masks and fins a lady a few bungalows down came towards us and said she would show us a good http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Maldives/Lhaviyani-Atoll/blog-287657.html This is our first day where we actually ate three meals out of a possible five So far wersquove only managed breakfast and then dinner as the meal times are somewhat odd. Breakfast is from 81pm Lunch 12pm and Dinner at 83010pm. There is afternoon tea at 56pm but as of yet we havenrsquot made it. The food is pretty good and seems mostly continental with a favouring towards Italian http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Maldives/Lhaviyani-Atoll/blog-287630.html Exploration day Well okay so we only got as far as exploring the one end of the island but eventually we will see the whole island at some point. After breakfast we walked up to the sandy bank part of the island which seemed miles away in the heat but in fact it was probably just under a mile or about two miles round trip. This didnrsquot bode too well with Liisa as she added a couple m http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Maldives/Lhaviyani-Atoll/blog-287230.html This seems to be coming a habit The day starts late followed by a trot over to the breakfast pavilion on the sunset side of the island where today we indulged in a freshly made waffle topped with nutella a pastry and fresh fruit. Our waffle chef brought us the waffles and then stayed to chat to us about his life working here. He is from Sri Lanka and has been here nearly 5 years. He told us http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Maldives/Lhaviyani-Atoll/blog-287213.html Day 2 on Palm Beach Island started with the promise of sunshine. I awoke early leaving Liisa to snooze away whilst I sat on the deserted beach watching the last of the sunrise with clouds of yesterday dissipating. I was rewarded with the company of a lone heron starring out to sea probably sizing up his next meal for practically a whole hour. The clouds were clearing nicely and the sun was brea http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Maldives/Lhaviyani-Atoll/blog-286197.html With hasty goodbyes to Gailrsquos dad the taxi took us to Gatwick Airport for the start of our journey to the Maldives. We were flying with Monarch Airlines and after some research online we discovered they were just a glorified sardine tin so we spent a little extra and upgraded to Premium Class for more legroom and better service. After checking in we hastened to the executive waiting loun http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Maldives/Lhaviyani-Atoll/blog-286183.html Apres de longues hesitations entre le trip sac a dos a Pekin pour enfin voir la Chine et les Maldives notre coeur a pench cote mer comme d'hab pour ce long we du mois de Mai. Et puis.... c'tait l'anniv de Flo alors il fallait marquer le coup quand memeBref grace a Kris notre copine rencontre en australie a long time ago et qui bosse dans ce resort de fous eh oui le property developmen http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Maldives/Male-Atoll/blog-280767.html ... http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Maldives/Lhaviyani-Atoll/blog-280669.html ... http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Maldives/Lhaviyani-Atoll/blog-280662.html ... http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Maldives/Lhaviyani-Atoll/blog-278326.html ... http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Maldives/Lhaviyani-Atoll/blog-278313.html